The determination of volatiles in a given substance is a very routine determination which is made countless times every day in numerous industries. Almost all agricultural products, feed grains, food products and manufactured products, such as textiles, films, coatings, paints, etc., are sold on the basis of the solid contents, the fat or oil content, moisture content or combination thereof. Consequently, these analyses must be run literally thousands of times daily in hundreds of industries to determine precisely the values of the products based on the compositions thereof. Corrections for moisture gain or loss during the production of a manufactured product or the storage of agricultural products and the like will directly affect the value of the product. Industry has thus established standards which directly relate to the value of the product, with price adjustments being made for variations in content.
The monitoring of moisture, solids, oil, fat and the like contents requires considerable time in quality control processing and tends to ensure that a proper or desired balance is obtained in the end product. Previous quality control analyses were time consuming, often taking hours to perform single tests due to the care needed in removing moisture, measuring fat content and the like so as not to destroy or decompose the same during the separation process. Thus, long, time consuming vacuum oven drying was often utilized as well as various viscosity, colorimetric and the like tests, based either on titrations or other analytical procedures.
In the food industry, such as the dairy industry, the analyses of milk, cream, cheese, eggs, ice cream and the like are citical, both in meeting government regulations and in ensuring the quality of the product. Elaborate testing procedures have been developed over the years such as those set forth in the book, Chemistry and Testing of Dairy Products, 4th Ed., 1977, by Henry V. Atherton and J. A. Newlander, published by the AVI Publishing Co., Inc., Westport, Conn.
Industry, however, has long needed more accurate and rapid analytical methods to control the quality of these products. In the same manner, meat processing also has critical parameters of moisture and fat content which must be monitored and controlled. Corn, wheat, tobacco, peanuts and other food products all are subject to quality measurements determined by moisture, fat and/or oil contents which are readily determined by the present invention. Blood analysis to determine the proportions of triglycerides, cholesterol and solids content is an important test to which the improved analytical procedures of the present invention are readily adapted. Waste products, including effluent streams, often require close monitoring under Environmental Protection Agency Regulations to control the solids, oil, grease and the like in such effluent streams. The present invention is ideal for such determinations in a rapid and precise manner.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and a process which rapidly and precisely determine the proportion of moisture or volatiles in a given substance in a fraction of the time previously required.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for measuring the solvent extractable materials in the residue of a substance from which the moisture or volatiles have been removed.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus which does not depend upon operator skill but rather, automatically weighs and records weight measurements as needed to measure and calculate the volatiles removed and solubles extracted.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a method of volatilizing the moisture in a sample being analyzed without decomposing the residual substances.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus which will calculate the percentage of materials volatilized, the percentage or amount of residue material and the percentage or amount of solvent extractable material without subjection to human or operator error, while at the same time substantially reducing the testing time to minutes or seconds per analysis.
These and other objects will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the description of the invention which follows.